The present invention appertains to a provisioning technique to set up hosting environments for a business application system through a data center, intra-corporate computing center, and the like.
Recently, there is a move to have centralized configuration of a business application system in the architecture of a data center, intra-corporate computing center, and the like in order to make effective use of computer resources. So far, most of business application systems have been built by fixed allocation of compute resources. Instead, the above configuration builds a bushiness application system by allocating a required quantity of computer resources for a period during which the system is needed, aiming to efficiently run a plurality of business application systems using reduced computer resources. To realize the above configuration, a technique for building a business application system on a computer resource at low cost is required. For example, as disclosed in JP-A No. 216593/2003 (patent document 1), a method for installing various, many servers (a business application system and its hosting environments) together at a time has been contrived. According to patent document 1, a plurality of computer resources provided with network boot means acquire a set of programs and setting data (hereinafter referred to as a boot image) from a central management server and a storage server when they boot. Then, discrete setup operations for the plurality of computer resources can be performed concurrently.
However, in the above prior art, if a malicious attacker sends false boot images to the computer resources, incorrect business application system and hosting environments would be built. The prior art involves a problem with security, that is, there is no means for protecting the data center and intra-corporate computing center. For example, if a hacking program is embedded in a boot image, there may be serious and fatal consequences for the business. A method for solving this problem has been developed, for example, as disclosed in JP-A No. 122588/2003 (patent document 2). In this method, an electronic signature (e-signature) is attached to a boot image (software in the description of patent document 2) and the e-signature is verified during a booting process (start-up in the description of patent document 2); thereby this method can prevent a false boot image from running to start the system.
However, a problem with the method disclosed in JP-A No. 122588/2003 (patent document 2) is that it takes long to verify the e-signature of a boot image of great size. Time taken to verify the e-signature attached to a file of relatively small size such as the file of a software patch, device driver, or the like is regarded as negligible. In the situation where various, many servers (a business application system and its hosting environments) are installed together at a time, quite a large boot image including an OS and middleware may be used and time taken to verify its e-signature is not negligible.
The e-signature technique used in the above situation only allows for an either-or choice of whether or not to perform e-signature verification. The prior-art method cannot meet a need to shorten the boot time while not to skip e-signature verification, which is another drawback thereof.